


Second Time's the Charm

by Pillsburydoughcat



Category: Uncharted (Video Games)
Genre: Anxiety Attacks, Drug Induced Hallucinations, F/M, Fluff and Hurt/Comfort, Guilt, Heavy Angst, I promise, Implied/Referenced Self-Harm, Original Character Death(s), Original Character(s), Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Self-Harm, Spoilers for Uncharted (Video Games), there will be happy
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-09-02
Updated: 2019-10-06
Packaged: 2020-10-05 10:00:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 7,405
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20487050
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pillsburydoughcat/pseuds/Pillsburydoughcat
Summary: It's been almost eight years since Leigh Ann's husband died. Two since she went on a job gone wrong and gave up the adventurer lifestyle. But when Nathan Drake pulls himself out of his own retirement to save his older brother he'll need her help to do it. Join Leigh Ann as she faces ghosts of her past, struggles with herself, and questions if she's really ready to find love again. I guess the second time's the charm.-A retelling of the events of Uncharted 4: A Thief's End-





	1. Return

The weather was perfect. It was one of those early fall mornings when the temperature was just right, not too warm, not too cold. You could sit outside on your porch with only one layer on and a steaming mug of tea and be perfectly content. And that’s just what I intended to do. Fall was finally beginning to feel like fall and not summer and pretty soon it would switch straight to winter. I wanted to enjoy it while I could. But that was the last morning like that that I would see until next year.

I sat cross legged in my patio chair, my tea in one hand and a stack of notes I had written on the impact military bands had on the instrumentation of the modern wind ensemble in the other. The small table in front of me was strewn with other loose sheets of paper, textbooks, reference books, and anything else I had bothered to bring outside with me. This was going to be my last free weekend before returning to my students at the public schools and I had to spend it preparing for a lecture at the collegiate level.

My phone rang beside me and I saw the familiar name and New Orleans area code displayed. Nathan Drake calling me was a surprise, but a welcome one to be sure.

“Hey, Nate!” I answered, “Long time no hear, I guess?”

“Hey, uh,” he stammered, “do you want to go to Italy?”

“Ha, what? Alone? That's very forward of you, Nate, but I thought you were married.”

“Ha-ha,” he replied dryly, “I'm afraid this is business, not pleasure. There's going to be an auction soon that's holding an artifact we need.” My stomach turned at the mention of the word business. Nate and I had both been out of that game for two years and all of a sudden he’s going on a job?

“Don’t start using the word ‘we’ yet, Nate. I haven’t agreed to anything. Since when are you out of retirement?”

“I’m not, really. At least I think I’m not,” he sounded like he was still trying to convince himself. “This is more out of necessity than trying to make a buck. ‘We’ includes someone else now. Someone, er, important to me is in a lot of trouble and he needs my help.”

“How much trouble is a lot?”

“His name is Sam and his life is riding on this. He’s in a lot of debt and the guys he owes is… dangerous, to say the least. Please, we could really use another pair of hands.”

Nate didn’t know anyone important enough for this, as far as I knew. Not anybody I didn’t already know. How important could this friend, or colleague, or partner be for him to never mention him in the eight years I’d known him? No, something wasn’t adding up. I wasn’t going to even consider risking myself in the field again without more information.

“Sorry, Nate, I just can’t wrap my head around this. You’re going to need to give me more to go off than that. And I don’t promise I’ll help you.” I spat out the last sentence hastily, anxious to get my point across. There was a long pause and then a sigh.

“I’m sorry, too, Leigh Ann. I hope you know that I regret what happened last time and that I never want that to happen to anybody ever again. But this is beyond personal gain now. If I don’t help Sam pay off this debt, they’ll kill him.” There was another long pause as I sat processing his words.

“I’ve told you before,” my voice was threatening to break, “I don’t blame you for that. It wasn’t anybody’s fault. I’m just… struggling to justify helping you. You’re one of my best friends and I trust you with my life, but I don’t think I could put myself out there again.” My voice did break on that last word. I was fighting to keep the worst memories back. “How important is this guy to you? I’ve never heard you mention the name Sam before.”

“It’s hard to explain and I’d rather do it face to face someday. All you need to know right now is that he was gone for fifteen years. In prison, actually… I don’t want to lose him again.” The sincerity in Nate’s voice nearly broke my heart. I’d only ever heard him talk about Elena like that. I mentally kicked myself in the ass for what I was about to say.

“I guess you’ll just have to tell me all about it in Italy, then.”

“Are you serious? Y-you’ll really do this? I don’t want to force you into it if-“

“Nate,” I cut him off, “I’m deciding to do this. Anybody that important to you is worth it.”

“I’ll owe you for this forever, okay? You have no idea how much this means to me. Thank you.” Any desperation in Nate’s voice was slowly seeping away, replaced by relief.

“Of course,” I replied, “What are friends for, right? But I think you’re my only friend that would ask me to travel cross-country to do crimes.”

“I don’t know about that. We’re friends with a lot of people who do that.” Nate was easy to talk to. He could always find a way to make a conversation lighter. We slipped back into our usual banter comfortably.

"Yeah, yeah. So what about this auction?"

"Right, nothing we're not used to. Black market. Valuable artifacts. Rich conmen secretly plotting to kill each other. That sort of thing," Nate explained.

"A typical day at the office, right?"

"Pretty much. It's being held at the Rossi Estate in three days."

"The Rossi Estate..," I questioned, more to myself, "This is really high dollar then."

"Exactly, so we'll need to look the part, too."

"Thanks for telling me on such short notice," I half-joked, "I don't think I own a single evening gown."

"Ah, I'm sure you'll throw something together in time," he replied. I could almost see him smiling at my frustration, the cocky idiot, "Besides, it's not all bad. You'll get to see us in tuxes."

"What artifact do we need from this auction? If Sam is in such a huge debt that he’ll get killed for it how are you going to bid-“ I paused, “We’re stealing it, aren’t we?”

"You catch on fast. It's a wooden cross. A depiction of St. Dismas. I'm sure you're familiar with him?” I was indeed familiar. The story of the crucifixion was common knowledge to me. I knew Nate was raised Catholic and I was raised Baptist so there were some obvious differences in our beliefs, but neither of us were very religious so it didn't come up much.

"Yeah, I know who he was. Why do we need the cross?"

"It holds a clue to finding a 300 year old pirate treasure. One of the largest in the world. It’s worth about $400,000,000. Sam owes his debtor half of it."

"Which pirate was it?" I definitely wasn't a huge authority on pirates, but I knew the bigger names well enough. I was no world historian either, but I prided myself on what knowledge I had accumulated over the years adventuring with Nate, Elena, and Sully, whether it be learnt from Nate's extensive knowledge or through my own studies. But the name I heard through the phone shocked me.

"Henry Avery."


	2. Reunion

I wasn’t much of an expert on pirates. Truth be told, the only true authority I had on history was in music and art. Even so, when Nate mentioned the name of one of the most infamous British pirates of his time only one thing came to mind: the Gunsway Heist. One of the largest heists in pirate history with an estimated take of 400 million dollars in today’s money, it left countless innocent lives ruined with the bloody trail of destruction left in its wake. One of the only things I learned through research of him was that Avery was a complete psychopath. This I knew for sure, as with all of the adventures I had been on with Nate, this one was sure to be rich in history.

Nate was very vague over the phone. Then again, it was Nate. He was always vague. One of his worst habits was to ramble on about “Oh my God, that’s so obvious.” or “Why didn’t I see this before?” when he had discovered something rather than tell the rest of us just what the hell he was talking about. There were only a few things he had made clear about this auction: we were trying to steal a cross of St. Dismas, and the cross held a clue to finding Henry Avery’s hidden treasure. This was just like Nate. Only give the bare minimum of information required to complete a job and then explain along the way. I knew it would be a lot easier the second he told me that Sully would be accompanying us. It would be way simpler to get information out of him because he always wanted to know every single detail of a job before he got onboard. I suppose I did, too, but I didn’t want to bombard Nate with questions over the phone. Talking to Sully in person would be much less difficult.

Luckily it would be a while until Nate and his partner arrived through the window to the room Sully and I were going to be waiting in. It would be next to impossible to get answers out of him once the plan was in full effect anyway. As we walked up the stairs towards one of the massive estate’s many lounges, I began to ask Sully all of the questions I’d been holding on to since Nate called.

“Your protégé was about as clear as mud when he explained what we were doing here.”

“I take it you don’t just mean this auction,” Sully replied.

“No, I don’t.” I said, “He hardly told me anything about the real reason behind this job.”

“And I take it you want the answers from me, right?”

“That would be helpful. You never seem to mind berating him with questions before a job.”

“Yeah, well,” he sighed, “gotta know what we’re dealing with, right? What do you want to know?”

“Well, for starters, how did this Sam rack up a big enough debt that it needed a 300 year old pirate treasure to pay it off?” That was it. That one simple question encompassed all of the information Nate gave me. Even so it was easy to deduce some things from it. Whoever Sam owed the money to must be either pretty dangerous or crazy to threaten him with his life if he didn’t deliver within three months. But it was also oddly specific that they were demanding a cut from a 17th century pirate’s fortune.

“Oh, God, where do I begin?” he questioned back, chuckling slightly, “Well, about fifteen years ago he and Nate were searching for this same treasure, Henry Avery’s. They were working with another guy named Rafe Adler. Rich asshole type,” he added with a smirk, “Adler bribed a prison warden to get them into a Panamanian jail to investigate the ruins of an old fort that used to be part of the jail during Avery’s time.” Sully then proceeded to tell me of what transpired in the prison. The first cross of St. Dismas, Rafe killing the warden in cold blood, and their daring escape that eventually led to what Nate thought was Sam’s death. He survived and had been in that same prison for the last fifteen years. Everything Nate had dug up about the incident confirmed that he was dead and the officials intended to keep it that way. By killing that warden Rafe had induced a full scale riot. The prison guards wanted to see Sam rot in his cell for the rest of his life. And he nearly did. I was reminded of the desperation in Nate’s voice over the phone and my heart clenched with sympathy for Sam. I listened intently as Sully recounted what little of the story Nate had told him about his friend’s escape.

Normally one wouldn’t tell others the full extent of what a desired treasure was worth, but I was sure Sam hadn’t really thought he would ever escape to find it. Unfortunately, in telling his him his dream of finding Avery’s 400 million in gold and jewels, the infamous drug lord Hector Alcazar now wanted a cut. And he wanted it badly. You might wonder how in the hell did he even get mixed up with the Butcher of Panama. Sometimes it simply comes down to fate. For the past year Sam and Alcazar had been cell mates. It was then fate that led Alcazar to have Sam accompany him in his escape and then subsequently force him to find the treasure within three months. Funny how life works.

It was a lot to take in. I couldn’t blame myself; I wanted answers and I had gotten them. I appreciated the gravity of the situation a whole more, though. I always wanted to help those in need, even if it meant danger was involved, but this… this was a _lot_ of danger. Still, it was for Nathan and if this Sam (whoever the hell he was) was so important that he would come out of his treasure hunting retirement, especially after what happened to us last time, then that was good enough for me.

I was focused so intently on listening to Sully answer my question that I hadn’t even realized that we had already entered the room we were headed to. Before I knew it he was making his way over to a window and cracking it open. Soon he was getting comfortable on one of the lounge’s many sofas and lighting a cigar.

“Well,” he said after taking a long drag, “I guess that about covers it. Anything else you want to know?”

“No,” I replied, “that answered all three of my other questions, too. And probably some more I could have come up with along that way.” We exchanged smirks, “Always full of mystery, that Nathan. In the almost eight years I’ve known him he’s never told me once about that. I’m sure there are plenty of other stories like that, though.”

“Yeah, well, understandably so. I didn’t think he’d ever bring it up again but here we are.” And with that he leaned over and pulled the chain on a nearby lamp a few times, giving the signal for Nate to start heading our way from the outside. I always hated this part of a job. Just sitting around waiting made me anxious. It was too easy to let negative thoughts bounce around my mind, reminding me of all the ways the job could go horribly wrong. Sully noticed my tension through the silence.

“Everything’ll go fine, darlin’. They’ll get here soon enough. Just try and make a grand entrance.” He turned around and gave me a reassuring smile and I couldn’t help but relax. Sully always knew what to say to me, even if there weren’t many words. The moment we met we both took a liking to each other. We seemed to be equal parts wit as well as tongue. Making sure Nate didn’t do anything too stupid was a hobby that he, Elena, and I now shared. He had made it his responsibility to watch over Nate like a father some twenty years ago but he had also done the same for me almost eight years ago.

Right, a grand entrance. If there was one thing I was good at it was being stealthy. I was sure I could just melt into the shadows and then reappear from the darkness when the right time arrived. Coming up with a witty remark to announce my presence wouldn’t be that hard either. I backed into a corner of the room and started inspecting the books on the shelves. I had become rather absorbed in one particular piece of Italian literature and almost didn’t notice the window Sully had unlocked earlier swinging open wider. As I watched two figures climb through the window I heard a voice call out from the darkness.

“Sully?”

“You know what I love about partying with a bunch of crooks?” Sully turned on the lamp again, bathing the immediate area in light, “Nobody cares if you smoke indoors.” He beamed up at Nate, cigar hanging from his mouth. The two men hugged and shared words of welcoming as I stepped out of my corner.

“I mind a little, y’know.” All three of them turned to face me before Nate and Sully started laughing. The other man, who I could only assume to be Nate’s partner, Sam, just stood there, eyes wide. I could tell he wasn’t expecting a woman. It wouldn’t have surprised me if Nate didn’t tell him about me at all. Nate walked over, arms open.

“It’s been a while, Leigh Ann.” We embraced, “Thanks again for coming.”

“Yeah, well, life and death adventure friends, right? It’s good to see you again.” I pulled away and grinned up at him.

“You, too.” He smiled back.

I walked toward his friend who had just finished greeting Sully and held out a hand toward him. “I suppose I should introduce myself. Leigh Ann Brook.” His expression relaxed greatly and I swore I could almost see the ghost of a smirk as he took my hand in his own.

“Samuel Drake.” He lifted my hand to his mouth and gently placed a kiss on top of it.

“Drake?” I questioned, turning my head towards Nate again. As far as I was aware he didn’t have any blood relatives left.

“Oh, right,” Nate responded sheepishly, “he’s my brother. That was part of what I wanted to explain face to face.”

“Must have slipped your mind. I’ll add it to the list.” I said, facing Sam again. “Your brother always leaves out the most important parts, do you know that?”

He chuckled and the corners of his grayish-blue eyes crinkled. “Yeah, he does that sometimes,” he replied looking down at me. Even with my heels on he was a good five inches taller than me. “Do you know that dress looks amazing on you?” I blushed at his simple comment. It had been a while since I had received a compliment like that. It wasn’t anything special, anyway. The only thing interesting about it was that it was backless and had a generous slit up the thigh that under different circumstances I probably wouldn’t have been comfortable wearing. However, it would help with mobility if, God forbid, we had to make a quick escape.

I could tell he was probably just being a flirt but it was still a very nice thing to say. I said my thanks a little less coherently than I normally would and took a step back, “Well, let’s go get that cross, shall we?”

“Yeah, about that,” said Sully, “C’mon, let me show you something.”

As I followed close behind Sully to leave the room I could hear the two brothers talking quietly to each other.

“Still wish I hadn’t invited her?” Nate asked.

“I might reconsider.”

“Yeah, well she’s not just a pretty face. She happens to be an excellent pair of hands. And stop staring at her like that, she’ll kick your ass.” I couldn’t help but smile.


	3. Auction

As we left the lounge we were in I could hear the brothers continue their quiet conversation, though they were doing a poor job concealing their voices.

“I’m serious, Sam,” Nate said, “Flirting with her isn’t going to get you anywhere. One time she decked a guy in a bar for calling her sexy.” I remember that experience well. It had been an extremely long day and all I wanted to do was enjoy a couple of drinks with Nate and Elena. The asshat wouldn’t stop making passes at me even though I was polite turning him down the first three times. He had obviously had too much to drink but that didn’t stop me from calmly stepping down from my barstool and planting my fist on his jaw anyway. He didn’t get up off the ground before we left which was a solid half hour later. The bartender didn’t even mind. He said he was a regular who always took it too far with women.

Sam, however, didn’t seem deterred by his brother’s words in the slightest despite his response. He chuckled softly before replying, “Whatever you say, little brother.” I made a mental note to tolerate Sam’s flirting as long as they were all as nice of compliments as the one he had paid me earlier. For some reason I didn’t mind it so much coming from him. To be honest I was perfectly alright with it as long as he was going to be a gentleman about it.

We had just arrived on the uppermost balcony directly above the ballroom floor where the auction was being held. I let my eyes roam idly over the stage where the podium and tables displaying the items up for auction were as I asked Sully, “So what did you want to sh…it.” In the middle of my sentence I got my answer. The St. Dismas cross was already on display.

He responded with a single word, “Yep.”

“Goddammit…”

“What’s the problem?” Nate and Sam had finally arrived behind us in time to see the displeasure on my face as Sully gestured downstairs and said, “Take a look.”

“That’s Avery’s cross.” Nate said with a look of disbelief.

“They brought it out of storage just before you guys got here.”

“How did you notice that?” I asked, “_I _didn’t even notice that. Why didn’t you say something earlier?”

“You seemed a little absorbed in my story telling.” Sully chuckled humorlessly, “You were a bit too lost in thought. I didn’t want to interrupt you.”

I waved a hand toward the other two, “You didn’t mention anything about them being brothers, either.”

“I figured Nate would have at least told you that much.”

Nate raised his hands defensively, “Alright, alright. I think we can all agree that we’ve all had a lot on our minds lately.”

“Yeah, like saving your _brother_?” A small smirk crept across Sam’s face before it fell again, “They changed the lot order.”

“Take a whole pile of cash to make that happen.” Sully and Nate continued to talk in hushed tones over the many problems we now faced. The bidding would be starting soon and there were about a few hundred eyewitnesses down there. We needed a diversion, and quickly.

I was barely picking up on what the other two were saying now. I looked up from the spot my eyes were focused on and saw Sam lost in thought as well. He looked up and locked eyes with me. I gave him a wry smile which he returned and I could tell we were thinking the same thing.

“Well, if the guards see us make for that cross-“

I cut off Sully before he could finish his sentence, “What if they don’t see us? Gentlemen, you’ve all been to prison before. If you want something dirty done then you wait-“

“For lights out.” All three of them spoke in unison. Sam’s smile got broader as he told me, “I like the way you think, Leigh Ann.”

“Where’s that electrical panel for this place?” Sully asked Nate. He pulled out a map of the estate and scanned over it before pointing it out to us, “That’s it up here. So we just have to climb up there and kill the lights…”

“Grab the cross in the dark.”

“There will be an emergency generator,” Sully pointed out.

“We’ll only have a few seconds of darkness to work with then.”

“Meaning… we’ll have to be right next to the cross when the lights go out,” Sam continued my explanation.

“Except there’s no way we can get that close without being noticed.”

“Scusate, signore e signori.” Sully’s whisper was once again interrupted, this time from a voice behind us. We all turned to see a waitress offering a platter to us. “Antipasti?” The rest of us politely declined while Sam took an appetizer from her tray.

“Hi. How are you?” he asked with the same roughish grin he had given me earlier. Great. He was just a flirt. Whether that would make it easier or harder on me I didn’t know yet. The waitress turned and left with a simple, “Ciao.”

Nate shoved his brother lightly on the arm, “Would you focus?”

“A waiter wouldn’t get noticed.” Sam ignored his question.

“That could work.” Sully mused.

“That will work,” Nate replied. “Alright. Alright, I’ll get to the breaker room, kill the power.”

“You mean I’m the waiter?” Sam questioned through a mouthful of food.

“You’re the best pickpocket.” Nate turned to Sully and I, “You head down to the floor, keep an eye on the prize, okay? Let us know if anything, uh… hinky goes down.”

Sully shared a grin with his pupil, “Roger that.”

“Alright. Listen, we’ve still got this,” Nate encouraged us with his small pep talk.

“Alright, follow me. We’ll cut through the cellar,” Sully said as he began to lead us through the estate once again.

I had to say, the place was really beautiful. I hadn’t really taken in just how lovely the classic Italian architecture was earlier while Sully and I were heading upstairs. It’s a habit of mine to lose myself in my surroundings and space out. I lose track of time easily and I had done it again. Before I knew it we had arrived at the door that led to the cellar.

“Here we are.” Sully announced. Nate tried the handle and let out a disgruntled noise, “Oh, hell… it’s locked.”

“Shit, it was open earlier,” Sully said before trying the door himself.

“Well, now what?” Sam asked, “Can we pick it?”

“No, it’s electronic.” Sully was about to speak again when the door opened and a waiter walked out. The four of us did our best to look as nonchalant as possible standing next to a door that led to somewhere we knew we weren’t supposed to be. The waiter eyed us suspiciously as he put a keycard into his back pocket.

“Did you see that?” Sam asked us.

“Keycard, back left pocket,” I replied.

“Yep.”

“Alright,” Nate said with a look of near triumph on his face. This would be easy, “I’m on it.” He started to take a step after the waiter but his brother held out an arm to stop him.

“Whoa, whoa, you sure you wanna do that? There’s a lot of eyes out here.”

Nate scoffed and patted him on the arm, “I think I can handle a simple lift.” He walked around the ballroom floor for a couple of minutes silently tailing the waiter and having obvious difficulties pick pocketing him. I casually followed behind him and enjoyed the slight look of frustration on his face that he was having an equally hard time concealing. I stopped close behind him and whispered, “Need a little help with that simple lift, pal?”

He turned around and sighed at the smirk I was giving him, “No, no, just warming up is all.” The waiter strode over conveniently close to Sam and I decided to stand next to him while I watched Nate’s next attempt.

“Need a few pointers?” Sam remarked.

“Yeah, I’m tracking all your movements,” I added and Nate gave both of us an annoyed look.

“I’m just a little rusty, is all,” he explained and made one last try for the man’s pocket, finally succeeding. “There, you see?” he said as he walked past us and quickly flashed the card from under his shirt sleeve before hiding it again. The three of us made our way back to the cellar door where Sully had been waiting.

“A pleasure to see professionals at work,” he said as Nate rolled his eyes and unlocked the door. Sully reached into the pocket on his jacket, pulled out four earpieces, and offered them to us.

I told Nate and Sam, “Good luck.” And they disappeared through the door.

* * *

We were once again at the part of a job I detested most: waiting. I found it hard to relax before the auction got started and was anxiously tracing my finger around the rim of my glass instead of actually drinking from it. Not able to find it in myself to talk to Sully, I settled for leaning against a table and watching the other auction-goers mill around. I had lost myself in thought again worrying about all of the things that could go wrong and I didn’t notice the woman that had walked up to Sully until she spoke, “Hands in the air.”

He turned around to see the dark-skinned woman pointing her fingers at him like a gun. She spoke with a soft smile and an accent I couldn’t quite place, “Hi, Victor.”

“Hello, Nadine. Pleasure to see you again.”

“Only this time, I’ve got the drop on you.”

“Well, I guess I should be glad that’s not a real gun.”

She turned to me and held out a hand, “I don’t believe we’ve met. Nadine Ross.” I shook her hand and introduced myself.

“Hardly recognize you out of your fatigues,” Sully said.

“Yeah…You know how it is. Every once in a while a job requires us to get all dolled up.” I smiled in understanding. “Feel so out of place here. Can’t tell you what a relief it is to run into another English speaker, even if you are American.”

“You’ll have to blame our parents for that one.”

“I was on my way to the bar. Can I get you something?”

“Yeah, scotch on the rocks.”

Nadine turned to me again, expectantly. “That’s very kind of you, but,” I paused and looked down at my untouched flute of champagne, “You know what? Anything harder than this. I really don’t care,” I laughed. She smiled and walked away.

My own smile fell and I crossed my arms, frustrated with myself, “Son of a bitch, why didn’t I think of that?”

“What?”

“Wearing pants.” Suddenly I heard some static and a lot of snickering through my earpiece.

“Nate. You catch all that?” Sully asked with a smirk

“Yes I did… sounds like a lady’s trying to buy you a drink,” Nate talked while the snickering continued.

“Yeah, Nadine Ross is buying us drinks,” I responded while rolling my eyes.

“Nadine Ross? Doesn’t she own that army for hire? What’s it called, Coastline?”

“Shoreline,” Sully corrected.

“Thought you had a run-in with them?”

Sully gave a humorless laugh, “That’s putting it mildly. Fortunately she does not seem to be holding a grudge.”

“Alright, listen, we’re all set here. You two stay out of trouble, okay?”

“We’ll try,” I responded, “I’d say the same to you but it’s kind of pointless since you always find it.”

“Yeah, yeah…” There was a final buzz of static and then silence from the other end.

It wasn’t long after we ended our conversation with Nate that Nadine returned to where Sully and I were. She had her hands full with three glasses. I was surprised she hadn’t dropped one of them. Sully took his scotch from her and thanked her before taking a sip. She offered me my own glass of cognac, “Here, anything has to be harder than champagne, right?”

“Thank you,” I said gratefully and took a generous drink. The warm, burning sensation felt much better than the tickling bubbles champagne usually had. Thankfully I could hold my liquor surprisingly well for a lightweight and hopefully it would only give me enough of a buzz to get through that night’s events. Soon my glass of bright, amber liquid had been finished and we were all reveling in one of Sully’s many Navy stories.

“I can’t believe you got away with that,” Nadine laughed.

“Oh, we did not,” Sully chuckled as well, “No, we had our liberty taken away for a month.”

“And what about the horse?” I asked more for Nadine’s sake. I had probably heard this one a hundred times already. And Sully knew that as he answered towards her, “Fortunately we had a lot of carrots on board.” I smiled off into the distance and saw Sam casually strolling around the opposite side of the floor. Sully followed my gaze and too saw him walking about in the same apron and red jacket the other waiters were wearing. I averted my eyes as I noticed Nadine turn her head to where we were looking.

“Recognize someone?”

“No. I thought I did, but no,” Sully answered her flatly and gave me a quick reassuring glance before Nadine turned her head back again.

“Hey, when am I finally going to meet that partner of yours…Drake?” My breath hitched slightly at the mention of Nate’s surname.

“Well, that’s ex-partner,” Sully replied and she hummed in response, “No, I’ve been flying solo for a while, but,” he gestured towards me, “we’re old contacts, thought I’d bring Leigh Ann up here for the auction. Drake’s out.”

Her eyes widened a little, “Oh. Like, ‘dead’ out?”

“Oh, no. More like retired. Last I heard he settled down, got married.” The two shared an understanding look before another voice sounded from behind us.

“Well, then he might as well be dead, right?” The voice laughed and Sully and I turned to face it. We were met with the face of a man with dull, tired looking eyes. His large smile appeared painted across his face as he spoke, “Victor Sullivan! How the hell are you?”

“Rafe,” Sully greeted as they shook hands.

“How long has it been? Ten years? Twelve?”

“Fifteen.”

“It’s amazing,” he chuckled again, “All these years gone by, here we are- we’re still haggling over dead people’s junk.” He smirked again and turned to me, “I don’t believe I’ve had the pleasure. Raphael Adler. Rafe.” Just another goddamn worry to add to the list. There was a strong chance Rafe was after the cross, too.

I hesitantly reached my hand out toward his and very reluctantly introduced myself. I would’ve given anything in the world not to have Rafe know my name. If we were going to be working against each other I’d prefer not letting him have any information against me. He took my hand in his and brought it up to his mouth and placed a kiss on top of it, just like Sam had done. Only Rafe’s was cold and unfeeling, like he was forcing himself to do this nicety.

“Aren’t you running your parents’ business?” Sully questioned.

“My business now,” Rafe’s face fell into something close to a glare but immediately returned to a forced smile, “but yes, that is my day job.”

“Ho ho. That is one helluva day job. You could probably afford to buy up everything on the block tonight.”

“Well, sure…but what would be the point in that? These days I’m only looking for the good stuff. Big scores. Any advice on what I should pick up tonight?”

“Yeah, like I’d want to bid against him,” Sully chuckled in Nadine and I’s direction as he motioned towards Rafe. I knew what he meant was more than a joke, though. There was no chance in hell we could let Rafe know what we were after. Sully lowered his voice and leaned in towards Rafe, “But, uh…just between you and me, I did notice they changed the lot order. I think somebody might be trying to rig this auction.” His tone wasn’t accusatory but I knew Rafe could tell what he meant.

Rafe nodded his head in understanding, “Well, remember where we are. This crowd didn’t get rich by playing fair.”

“Which is why you really need someone watching your back in a place like this,” Nadine added, joining Rafe by his side, “Fortunately, you have Leigh Ann here.” She gave a pleasant smile and looked to me. I tried to keep my face straight as I took in the entire situation.

“Ah,” Sully sighed with a nod, “Well, I do hate to break it to ya… You are working for an American.”

“With,” she corrected, “We’ve partnered up on this one.” Rafe tipped his glass in acknowledgement.

“I see. Talk about a power couple,” Sully chuckled and I joined nervously. I realized I hadn’t spoken in a while and even though I didn’t know either of them it would seem impolite if I didn’t try to make conversation. I was spared for another short moment when a women’s voice sounded over the crowd, “In a few moments we’ll begin bidding on our next item… an inlaid wooden crucifix from the Trott Estate.”

“Well, I know when I’m a third wheel,” Sully began, “You two kids have fun tonight. Come on, Leigh Ann.” He turned to walk away and before I could start to follow him Rafe grabbed his arm.

“Just hold on, Sully. How’d you find out about it?” Rafe gave Sully a cold, knowing stare.

“It? Now what ‘it’ is that, Rafe? Nadine, I think your partner here has had too many Bloody Marys-“ In a flash, Rafe knocked Sully’s drink out of his hand, sending shattered glass and scotch across the floor. The relaxed expression on his faced turned fierce as he took a step toward Sully and pointed a threatening finger in his face.

“Cut the bullshit, old man,” he jabbed his finger into Sully’s chest and heads started to turn our way, “Now I don’t know how you scammed your way in here. But if you think…about bidding on Avery’s cross, I can tell you exactly how you two are going to be leaving. In a _goddamn_ body bag-“

“Rafe!” Nadine interjected.

He seemed to come out of his enraged state and returned to mock geniality. He plastered another smile on his face and brushed off the shoulders and front of Sully’s jacket, “Well, you get my point.”

Sully nodded, his face expressionless, “Lovely seeing you both.” He put a hand on my back and led me away from them.

My heart continued to beat rapidly as I looked up at Sully, “Do want me to get you another drink?”

“No, that’s alright,” he gave me a weak smile and squeezed my shoulder. “Nate? Nate?!” he lowered his voice to a whisper, “God damn it kid. Where the hell are you?”

In hindsight, it probably wasn’t the best plan for Sully and I to separate in the crowd, but I needed some time to myself to think about what had just happened. I told him I was going to get another drink and that I would be watching the auction from the other side of the floor. I made my way over to the bar and asked for water. As much as I would’ve liked something harder to calm my nerves, I decided it was best not to have anymore alcohol.

I thanked the bartender when he handed me a glass and turned to head closer to the stage. My drink was nearly gone when I stopped at a table and leant up against it. It was completely gone when I heard Sam’s voice behind me, “Looks like you could use a refill.” I turned to see his usual smirk. It was a relief to see his genuine expression after dealing with Rafe’s feigned pleasantness. I smirked and eyed the tray he was holding out to me. Ah, what the hell. It was only champagne. As I took a sip the auctioneer announced the beginning of the bidding on the cross.

“I think that’s your cue,” I told him, “Good luck.” He gave me a quick wink and left.

The auction had been going for a couple of minutes and Rafe seemed to be winning. I was growing continually more nervous when I finally heard Nate’s voice crackling in my earpiece.

“Sam? Leigh Ann? Sully? You there?”

“God damn it, kid, where the hell’ve you been?” Sully’s voice sounded on the other end as well.

“I made it. Had a few close calls but-“

“Yeah, well if you’re gonna cut the power, now would be a good time.”

“You think you wanna hurry up a little, please?” I asked, “I’m getting worried here.”

“Alright, well I’m gonna need a minute before I can reach the panel.”

“We don’t have a minute, Rafe’s about to walk out of here with your cross,” Sully sounded as agitated as I felt.

“Wait, what? Rafe? Rafe is here?”

“Yes, Rafe is here. And as of right now, he has the highest bid,” Sam answered.

“Well, outbid him,” Nate replied exasperatedly.

“With what?” Sully questioned and I could see him nervously chewing on his cigar from where I was, “I don’t have that kind of scratch.”

“Sully, we’re stealing it, remember?” I reminded him.

“What if he calls my bluff?”

Nate sighed, “He won’t.”

The bid was raised to ninety thousand and Sam spoke roughly, “Guys, if we do not get this cross, I am as good as dead.

“Yeah, well I end up with the highest bid, we’re all dead.”

“Sully, I need you to buy me more time,” Nate pleaded.

“Since we have no other bids,” the auctioneer’s voice rang out threateningly.

“Trust me.”

“Going once…going twice.”

“Ah, screw it,” Sully raised his number.

“Bene! We have one hundred thousand Euros in the room. Thank you. Do we have any other bids?”

From where I was standing I had a perfect view of the murderous glare that Rafe was giving Sully before he raised his own number to bid again.

Sully sighed, “Well, in for a penny in for a pound.”

“Don’t worry, you’ll be out of there in no time,” Nate reassured.

“I better be.”

Sully and Rafe engaged in a bidding war of epic proportions. Sully would wait until the last second to bid, giving Nate more time, but Rafe immediately put his own bid against him after. It was up to one hundred sixty thousand when Sam said, “Hey man. Starting to sweat bullets here.”

“Yeah, gimme a sec!” Nate replied sounding annoyed. The bidding had reached two hundred thousand when he said, “Alright, boys and girl, I’m at the switch. You ready?”

“As I’ll ever be,” Sam answered, “Leigh Ann?”

“Let’s get this over with,” I could already feel my heart rate increasing with adrenaline, “Sully?”

“Just a sec,” I saw him smirk and he raised the bid one last time. Rafe shot his arm up into the arm before the auctioneer was done speaking.

“Five hundred thousand. Let’s get this show on the road here.”

“Uh…thank you,” the auctioneer said unsurely, “We have five hundred thousand Euros in the room. Does the gentleman wish to bid again?”

Rafe held his arms out expectantly, daring him to bid again. Sully raised his arm halfway and dropped it again in mock defeat. He waved his arms in an elaborate gesture as if to say, “It’s all yours.”

Rafe pointed at Sully with his bidding number and gave a fake smile as he spoke loud enough for the whole floor to hear, “Had me worried there for a minute, Victor. Thought I might have to kill you!” The rest of the people laughed at his grim joke but I wouldn’t have put it past him to actually do it.

Sully laughed quietly, “Okay, let’s ruin this asshole’s evening.”

“Anyone else?” the auctioneer asked.” Going once… going twice…Then I shall sell it for five hundred thousand-“ Before she could finish her sentence the room was plunged into darkness. Confused murmuring came from the guests and as she told them to remain calm.

I felt a hand slip into mine and heard a voice in my ear, “It’s just me, come on,” Sam said and pulled me away from the room. The last thing I heard before a door closed behind us was an angry yell from Rafe.


End file.
